[Announcement] Hi, I'm Adam, AMA
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French beers taste like ass, you were rightHey-o. Happy to see you back here.
So, what-all did you end up seeing in France and/or Belgium? Anything in my list make the final cut?
We're kicking ourselves for not getting over to Ypres. But we saw so much (too much) of France that any more travel would have pushed me over the edge.
Next time, make sure you have a conference in BrusselsFrench beers taste like ass, you were right
We're kicking ourselves for not getting over to Ypres. But we saw so much (too much) of France that any more travel would have pushed me over the edge.
My favorite stop in Nashville was the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's plantation.
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We're over in England next summer, I suppose that's still too far away from BrusselsNext time, make sure you have a conference in Brussels
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Do they still have slaves available for sale??
Everyone has a price.
Kelowna actually (a far superior locale as far as I'm concerned).
It looks like you went a ton of places over there - any favorite spots?
That's even closer. Ok, I'll let you know next time we're in K-town, it's pretty often.
Vimy Ridge started off the trip with some nice Canadiana. Chateau Haut-Koenigsburg heading towards Germany was a pretty fascinating castle that's been rebuilt over the years and is pretty top condition now. Annecy was amazing (30km from Geneva, Switzerland). Avignon's old city is just oozing history throughout, hard to drive in though. Mont-Saint-Michel is brilliant and people should just spend a night at a hotel there because lit up at night, I think it's probably one of the most beautiful things in France.
Monaco.....Let me tell you a story or two about Monaco. I don't drive standards very often and I was...lucky...enough to get a standard diesel Mini Cooper. Very fun to drive, great on gas, different shifting than I'm used to. Monaco is very hilly. And by very hilly, I mean the whole city basically sits on Big White right down to the oceanside. It's also very small, so parking is at a premium. We're driving around and I'm searching in vain for a parking spot and I cross a white line. Well, apparently that's a cardinal sin in Monaco and I approach a roundabout where a Monaco police offer had apparently spotted my sin and waves me over. I roll down my windows and he's spitting mad at me. I'm incredulous at this offense and he's barking French at me, and then English, and then Stupid. He wants me to go around the block and do the intersection again so I can show him I know how to do it. Otherwise he's going to give me a 350 Euro fine. I'm staring up at him thinking 'You have got to be kidding' and I had apparently smiled a bit so he then started barking at me about thinking he was funny, and this was all a big joke and he should impound my car. I'm looking at him up from this little Cooper and I'm just sweating bullets trying to explain I'm just strying to find a place to park. Eventually he just lets me go but that was the beginning of our Monaco adventure.
I find a parking garage underground, get settled and do a walking tour of Monaco. I'm dressed up because I intend to head into the Monte Carlo for some quick table games. Apparently I wasn't dressed well enough (Dress shirt, dress pants, no tie) so we're denied entry into that part. Dejected, I go into the Hotel Paris and sit on some slot machines in there - which is basically just an American style casino with slots machines everywhere and snooty staff heading off tourists trying to come in wearing hats.
We leave the casino and sit down at a restaurant. 11 Euro for a bottle of coke. FUCK THAT.
Head back to the garage walking along the water front where apparently there's a Yacht Exhibition starting up that weekend.
Some of the smaller yachts are parked out in the harbour.
Get back into the parking garage and try to head home. I say try because the parking garage had an exit that was incredibly steep with the gate arm halfway up the exit. I pull up in the cooper, put in my paid parking stub, arms lifts up, I try to drive out.
Stall the cooper.
Curse, try it again.
Stall the cooper.
Did this four times until the gate arm dropped back down again. So, I'm stuck in the exit with two cars behind me, no parking ticket, and no way to go up.
The cars behind me eventually take a different exit and I roll the car back down to the beginning, get fined 20 Euro for 'losing' my ticket, and try the exit again.
Stall the cooper.
FUUUUUUUUUUCK. Try it again.
Stall the cooper.
Arm comes down again. So now I've wasted 20 Euro, I'm pissed to all get out because I have no fucking idea in hell why I can't get out of the garage.
My wife goes and talks to the garage attendant, explaining her husband is an idiot and is having problems getting out of the garage so he tells us try again and he'll left the arm for us. So we get back in the car, and I creep slowly up the hill to the arm, and he doesn't lift it. So I stop - THEN he lifts it - and I try to go again.
Stall the cooper.
I'm just so incredibly frustrated at this point that I gun the engine, drop the clutch and...
Gently climb the grade out of the parking garage.
I guess BMW has built a hill assist into the Mini's that runs a little differently than standard hill starts. It doesn't roll back on the hill even if you don't have the brake down but you have to gas it up a little higher than normal to get going (and it's a diesel so you have to hit around 2000RPM to begin with).
I'm never going back to Monaco. Ever.
No. I spent $300 in one winery in Chateau-Neuf-de-Pape for 6 bottles with the intention of bringing back 4 to Canada. Drank them all in a week. French wine isn't just about squishing grapes, adding yeast and drinking the proceeds, there's a huge culture and history to every bottle you see. Yes, French wine can be expensive, in no small part due to protectionism from importing countries. It would have cost $300 in duty just to ship those 6 bottles to Canada. We had some very awesome wine that was $6 a bottle, and then some great wine that was $60 a bottle. The best wine we had was $250 a bottle.
We spent two hours with a master sommelier at the highest rated degustation on the French Riviera. Awesome guy, he went over which grapes go into which wines, how they taste different, what terroir was, what makes French wines different from Australian wines, how he got into wine in the first place, etc. As poncy as it sounds, French wine isn't just about getting a nice buzz, it's often a small mom and pop vineyard that create the best wine out there.
To the French, food and wine isn't business, it's part of who they are. They're immensely proud of the work they do around food and wine and it shows. Contrast that to say, Australian wine which is a relatively new phenomenon and it's hard to compare the two.
French champagne is incredibly overrated however.
There's....literally no other champagne. Anything not from France with the word "Champagne" on it, is, by default, fraudulent. You english-speaking folk like to use "champagne" to stand in for any sparkly white wine, but that's like calling all cars "mercedes".
On the other hand, I do agree they're terribly overrated - I've had much better cavas than champagnes, especially if you compare in the same price range.
Also, I hope you weren't actually surprised *Monaco* is expensive - it's one big fancy suite calling itself a country, after all
I reject your premise. Coney Dogs are still Coney Dogs, even if they didn't come directly from Coney Island.There's....literally no other champagne. Anything not from France with the word "Champagne" on it, is, by default, fraudulent. You english-speaking folk like to use "champagne" to stand in for any sparkly white wine, but that's like calling all cars "mercedes".
On the other hand, I do agree they're terribly overrated - I've had much better cavas than champagnes, especially if you compare in the same price range.
Also, I hope you weren't actually surprised *Monaco* is expensive - it's one big fancy suite calling itself a country, after all
Or any search provider, Google. Oh waitThere's....literally no other champagne. Anything not from France with the word "Champagne" on it, is, by default, fraudulent. You english-speaking folk like to use "champagne" to stand in for any sparkly white wine, but that's like calling all cars "mercedes".
On the other hand, I do agree they're terribly overrated - I've had much better cavas than champagnes, especially if you compare in the same price range.
Also, I hope you weren't actually surprised *Monaco* is expensive - it's one big fancy suite calling itself a country, after all
Champagne's sold as a luxury item when it is anything but - that's how I see it's overratedness. We were watching a documentary on Krug champagne and one of the issues they had was that Paris Hilton was spotted drinking it, and they were concerned that it would lose it's 'lustre' because of that.I wasn't surprised Monaco was expensive, I was looking forward to it. What I wasn't expecting was the police state.
Any champagne not made in France has to be called "Sekt" here in Germany.Personaly, I prefer Prosecco.
I'm pretty sure here in the US it has to be labeled as sparkling wine if it is not actually from Champagne.
Still investigating. Need to learn more about it before I'll commit to a trip.
We'll I've landed in Utah, hoping to hook up with LittleKagsin but alas, it doesn't look feasible. Next stop, Tennessee.
If you ever come through Canada, do visit New Brunswick. We can create the most epicest of gifs.
Heart swelled with pride today. My older cousin on tv.
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I tried looking you up while you were in Maine and I was in Quebec but couldn't find you on FB.
If it helps, I'm mutual friends on FB with about a half dozen fellow Halforumers like Dave, Charon, Squidleybits and her hubby, etc.
GasBandit
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Heh... hoping to hook up with.
Helps now
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